The debate about whether neural networks or the human brain consumes more energy has taken an unexpected turn. Sam Altman stated that a proper comparison should consider not only the brain's work but also millennia of evolution and all the calories consumed by a person until they reach intellectual maturity.
The head of OpenAI spoke at an event organized by The Indian Express, making an ambiguous statement regarding the energy efficiency of artificial intelligence. During a one-hour Q&A session, he stated that rapporterer In response to criticism of high energy consumption by neural networks, Altman expressed his opinion on the unfairness of direct comparisons between the energy spent by AI models generating responses and the costs of the human brain's thought processes. According to the entrepreneur, such estimates ignore the vast amount of preliminary investments made in the development of human intelligence.
Altman argued his position by saying that becoming a rational person requires about 20 years of life and the consumption of all the accompanying food during that period. "People talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model... But it also takes a lot of energy to train a human. It takes about 20 years of life and all the food you eat during that time before you become intelligent," Altman wrote on X.
Only after going through this long phase of biological maintenance can a person become capable of complex intellectual activity, Altman says. Additionally, he suggested that this calculation should also include the evolutionary path of a hundred billion people who fought for survival and accumulated scientific knowledge. If we sum all these biological and historical energy expenditures, then modern artificial intelligence systems can already be considered comparable or even more efficient in terms of resource consumption, he concluded.
Denne logik har udløst skepsis blandt flere observatører og eksperter i branchen. Kritikere peger på, at OpenAI-teknologierne ikke opstod i et vakuum, men er et produkt af menneskelig tanke, som har været afhængig af de samme evolutionære fremskridt og historiske gennembrud, herunder skabelsen af de første computere. Nogle kommentatorer ser generelt i Altman's ord tegn på dehumanisering, idet han reducerede barndommens, voksnes og læringsprocessens kompleksitet til kun utilitaristiske energimæssige indikatorer. På trods af den kontroversielle retorik understregede Altman i samme tale vigtigheden af at overgå til bæredygtige energikilder, så store teknologiske aktører ikke længere konkurrerer med befolkningen om begrænsede ressourcer.
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